Follow one load up a fixed-height ramp at constant speed while an object-based model accounts for motor work, gravitational potential energy and frictional heating.
Learning guide and suggested activities
What this tool shows
How a motor maintains constant speed by balancing the forces acting down the ramp
How mechanical power follows P = Fv for the moving load
How motor work accumulates as gravitational potential and thermal energy
How angle, mass, speed and kinetic friction change the required mechanical power
Why settings for a new run do not alter objects already moving
OCR A relevance
Module 3: Work, energy and power
Module 3: Forces in action
Newton’s laws on inclined planes
Try these tasks
Run the same load at two angles and compare the journey time and required power.
Double the constant speed and observe the change in energy transferred each second.
Switch on friction and follow the split between GPE and thermal energy.
Pause a run and verify that position, time and energy-store values remain fixed.